On May 14th, we wrapped up our 3rd year of homeschooling. I feel like such a newbie to the homeschooling world, but I guess 3 years counts as experience! This year was our first official year of reporting though.
Overall, this year was great. While everyday wasn't a load of fun, Addison did a great job of getting her work done and rarely ever complained about school.
About half-way through the year I had one of those, "I'm going to put her on the bus tomorrow" kind of days. Looking back I'm not even sure why I was struggling. I called a trusted friend and mentor and the Lord used that conversation to completely change my outlook on what I was doing. I've always felt the Lord's call to homeschool. I am a teacher and nerd at heart, so most of the planning and scheduling comes naturally to me. However, if you homeschool because you like being a teacher, you will burn out very quickly. My roots needed to go deeper. Chad obviously walks this journey with me. We pray about it and he is there when I need to talk through things. The day to day operations are left to me though. I had to know why I was doing this. Wouldn't it just be easier to send her to school? Chad and I turned out fine, right?
My friend challenged me to pray and to make a list of the pros and cons of homeschooling and traditional school for our family. Every family's list would look different.
This list made such an impact on me, that I hung it above my desk. In the hard moments (which were not terribly often) I needed to look at it and remember:
"No one will ever care about your child's character more than you will."
"I want to know my daughters."
"My life is not promised to be easy."
"My number one goal for my children is discipleship."
I do not believe every family is called to homeschool. Our family is. We will seek the Lord each year about it. One thing I do know - I am commanded to teach my children. To disciple them. To help them grow in the nurture and the admonition on the Lord. For me it has nothing to do with not liking the public school. I have no idea what the test scores are at West Point Elementary or the programs they offer. I'm sure they are great. I just know I need more than a few hours a day to pour the Word of God into my kids to help mold their character. Whether its science or math or handwriting or listening skills - I want to know my girls and to be a puddle on the ground every day from pouring into them the things the Lord has given me to teach them. Sheltering them from the world's influence is definitely important too. I am not afraid of being them being too sheltered. In today's world I'm not even sure that's possible.
I also love the time I have with them. I read a blog the other day about homeschooling. A lady looked at the mom on the playground and said, "You'll blink and they'll be grown. Enjoy them while they are young." The mom thought, "I know this season will go fast, but I pray when their childhood comes to a close and I will look back at all the hours I spent with them and be able to say 'It went by quickly, but we enjoyed every moment.'"
Here is a wrap up of what we used this year:
Addison
Bible - We used Grapevine Studies most of the year. The packets are expensive however, so we didn't do them every day. Half-way through the year I found a little devotional series called the ABCs for Godly Children. It has a character trait, devotional, craft, memory verse and Bible passage for every letter. Since Mya was doing letter of the week, this fit nicely. The girls love Grapevine pages though.
Phonics, Reading & Spelling - Abeka
No complaints. Reading really clicked for Addison about half-way through the year. I hope over the coming year to help encourage a love for reading and not just doing it for school. Spelling is sometimes a challenge, but it is finally clicking that the phonics rules will help her spell. We also had read aloud time together in the mornings (this fell off toward the end of the year) and at lunch time. In the morning we would read shorter books from Five in a Row or Sonlight lists and at lunch we read chapter books like Mr. Popper's Penguin's, The Bridge Family, Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Secret Garden.
Math - Abeka & Reflex Math
I am pleased with Abeka Math and Addison is doing great. I remember from elementary school, one of the biggest things with Abeka math was drilling flashcards. I am a firm believer in the extreme importance of math fact fluency. I have tutored enough kids in math to know how important math facts are. However, flashcards just weren't working for us. Addison didn't like them and therefore it made it painful to do it as much as was needed. Thankfully a friend introduced us to Reflex Math. It is an online math fact fluency program. Highly recommend it!
Writing - Abeka - ehh. We stopped official handwriting pages halfway through the year. As Charlotte Mason would say, it felt like Twaddle, even though it probably wasn't. She did have to write journal pages which I used to talk about handwriting instead.
History & Geography - Road Trip USA. Highly recommend! (www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com) It was such a fun part of our week. I used the "If you Lived" series for our history book to go along with what part of the country we were studying. For instance, we finished the year looking at the western states and reading "What If You Traveled in a Covered Wagon..." We read the atlas, watched You Tube videos, and studied animals from each state.
Science - Through our Co-Op we used Apologia's Elementary Science book studying Botany. I am not a huge science person and after the first chapter of this book I didn't want to pick it up again. The author's intent is to go deep in one area each year, rather than skimming lots of areas. The more we got into the book though, it got better. I summarized some of the readings for her. This year, I may buy the audio books!
PE/Health, Literature, Lego League, Music - Co-Op. No complaints.
Art - Addison had Art class every other week at Co-Op. She loves to draw much more than art projects. I enrolled her in Art Classes at the Arts & Craft center on post. She learns about a different artist each week and do a cooresponding art project.
Piano - Addison has come a long way in piano this year. Her and I still clash in this area more than any other. We are working on it! It is best I am not her piano teacher and I am trying to show more grace. She likes piano, but it is not always the most focused student.
Gymnastics - her heart. She loves it and is doing so well. I think she would excel more in a more competitive program, but this was what we needed this year - convenient.
Typing - Typing Instructor for Kids - whenever we got around to it. About every other week.
Mya
Letter of the Week - www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
Mya did a great job this year. We had calendar time, weather and memory verse each day. She was always very enthusiastic about her work and was so excited to finish the alphabet.
She did History, Geography and Read alouds with us most days.
She was the only girl in the Preschool class at Co-Op. She loved her class, especially music class with Mrs. Danielle.
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